Looping: September 2025
04 Oct 2025Here are the loop jams I captured from the month of September.
| The embedded clips below all show the same thumbnails, but I assure you they are each set to jump the right unique moment. Full video here. |
Loop 1
A crunchy notadumble tone for the chord progression, a bass line that paces the drum kick in a nice way (I’ve been working on that). Listening back to it, the fuzzy lead tone on top is a bit shrill. But I like the distorted-plus-octaves released section in there. That part practically sounds like a song.
Loop 2
I really like the chord progression I noodled out that is the foundation of this loop. It uses a mix of single notes and some not standard chords and also not just a straight rhythm. I’ve found myself coming back to it after. The bass line isn’t fancy but was intentionally set in the loop to create some contrasting motion with different repeats. Using vibrato can be touchy with a lead tone because it can sound like you’re a bit out of tune (and technically, you are?), so I’m second guessing whether that was the right tonal choice here. I was going for a more laid back low fi vibe. Somewhat got there. This one sounds happy and relaxed to me.
Loop 3
This one so clearly was just me noodling out something weird on bass and then going “sure, yeah, hit record I guess.” Good to bring the tiny keyboard in though; I don’t do that enough. And then the jam on top is acoustic (pickup, not mic’d) with a fairly notably strong delay. It’s all, fine? Chill.
Loop 4
Swimmy phaser tone on that central riff. The bass is simple but emphasizes that double beat. And then for the lead I went a bit heavy on tone but was trying to lean into leaving lots of space.
Loop 5
This one is a repeat of sorts. I was listening back to some older loops and remembered this one I liked. So I decided to use the raw idea behind it again and see what happened. And what happened is one new idea on top of that led to so many more different ideas. There’s a pulse to this one that has me bobbing my head, started with the second guitar layer and then emphasized with the bass. I also like how the second bass layer (why not!) really adds something. And then for the lead section I laid something remarkably similar to the original but it ends up feeling very very different. Music is cool like that.
Loop 6
This one is so moody, and it’s not just the lighting. Such a non-assuming start with the tremolo open chords. I’m feeling better about locking it in on the bass, and this one gets there. It also represents the moment of me finally cracking a tone from the Dark Star that I liked (or more accurately, liked in a mix). I had also been playing a bit of slide (which I’m still not great at) before this and it really shows in the playing style.
Loop 7
So I messed up the original recording of this. Turns out I didn’t reselect the audio from the mixer and was getting it from the microphone (unhelpful due to having monitors off and headphones on). But I liked it so I went back and did a quick recreation the next day. The lead section here is over the original loop. I’m happy with how emotive the playing is.